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The prime minister of this country Stephen Harper is supposedly a Maple Leafs fan.

But there he was, not only jumping on that crowded Montreal Canadiens bandwagon but actually taking a shot at the Maple Leafs shortly after Montreal downed Boston on Wednesday night.

Tweeted the PM: “Great to see a Canadian team finally take out the Bruins in a game 7. #GoHabsGo @CanadiensMTL”

Dagger. Yes Prime Minister, voters in Toronto remember last year’s Game 7, with the Leafs blowing a 4-1 lead in the last half of the third and losing in overtime. Thanks for the memories.

But that’s where we are with hockey in this country. Credit the Habs for doing what no Canadian team has done for a while: Advance to the Eastern Conference final picking up fans of all stripes along the way.

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They’ll play the New York Rangers on Saturday.

“I think we’re 1-1 against them this year so obviously they have a really hot goaltender right now” said Habs centre Max Pacioretty. “It seems like they play a lot like us it’s a fast game and they have everyone on board right now so it’s going to be a fun series.”

THE NEXT STEP

Here’s what P.K. Subban had to say about beating Boston: “You know it’s a good feeling to go to the conference final and when you think about it you have an opportunity to get one step closer to the Stanley Cup. You know that’s our goal and listen we deserve it. We deserve it. We worked hard like you know nothing has come easy for us all year. We’ve worked hard for everything that we’ve gotten and you know for a team like I said that just as a player being a part of this team hearing some of the things that some people have said and the way people have disrespected us both on and off the ice I’m just happy for our group. I think we earned a lot of respect.”

FANCY STATS

After a year in which the fancy stats community made strides in promoting words like Corsi Fenwick and PDO into the jargon of the hockey conversation (albeit with an I-told-you-so attitude about the collapse of the Maple Leafs), the Montreal Canadiens now offer a conundrum.

Like the Leafs, the Canadiens are not good a Corsi or Fenwick team. Like the Leafs, the Canadiens are built on timely scoring often off the rush and great goaltending. Unlike the Leafs, the Canadiens are making it work.

“We are a pretty good team and when we worry about ourselves and our game and when we are skating hard and we play between the whistles we are a very frustrating team to play against and that showed” said Pacioretty.

The Maple Leafs had a horrible overall shots disadvantage (the basis of the Corsi and Fenwick measures) at second worst in the league and were very high on the PDO scale (a combination of save percentage and shooting percentage), at sixth overall.

So the Leafs collapse was predictable, say the stats folks, because of those measures. The Leafs’ high shooting percentage wasn’t sustainable.

Montreal’s Corsi (26th of 30 teams) and Fenwick (22nd) were almost as bad as the Leafs (although not nearly as extreme in shots differential).

Montreal’s PDO was about the same as the Leafs (although with Carey Price a high save percentage was more sustainable than the Leafs weirdly high shooting percentage).

Now Montreal has taken the mantle as the anti fancy-stat team. The measures of the fancy-stats community Boston (the third best team in Corsi and fourth best in Fenwick) should have had no trouble beating Montreal.

For what it’s worth the New York Rangers are a top-10 Corsi and Fenwick team. So folks, keep your spreadsheets handy.

It may well be that the Canadiens are simply the exception that proves the rule. Still alive, after all, are the two best Corsi and Fenwick teams: The Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks.

SUTTER: I think when you’re going into a playoff series you’re facing elimination when you think about it. Correct? Somebody’s going to be eliminated. Every time you take the first shift for Game 1 you’re facing elimination.

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